Surly Pills

Did everyone take a Surly Pill today?

The empty fridge sent me forth to the grocery store. Unlike many people, I normally enjoy grocery shopping. I love to cook, love to eat, love to try out new foods and can easily spend way to much time (and money) at a well stocked Signature Kroger.

None of the employees of the Kroger on West Gray in Houston, Texas wanted to be at work today. The Deli employee looked so pained by my requests that I cut my list short. The checker and the bagger were way to busy discussing their off work plans to smile, make eye contact or say thank you. The sacker also put the bagged salad in the bottom of the bag and dumped a half gallon of milk on top. I hope allrecipes.com has some ideas for what do with wilted lettuce.

Onward to Sur La Table. Since I love to cook, it stands to reason that I love Sur La Table. They enticed me into the store with a $10 off coupon and a new catalog. Old coupon clipper that I am, of course I had to use it. I coveted a salad dressing mixer. Couldn't find it. Did find two clerks busy gossiping. They were not happy at being interrupted. Suddenly I was not happy at being in Sur La Table. Normally I can happily while away a couple of hours (and $100) at Sur La Table. Not this time. It was quite apparent I was annoying the clerks. I bought my Salad Mixer and left.

I'm a devoted Internet shopper but occasionally I feel the need to go into a real, live, bricks and mortar store. Then I have an experience like today. It's back to the 'net for me.

Library2Play - Thing # 19 Web 2.0 Awards

In my "The term paper is due, I'd better clean the house" mode I've managed to procrastinate my way all the way to the Library2Play deadline. I don't need the 18 hours so I 'm not even sure why I am driven to finish it. I guess it's a combination of my Type A personality and the fact that I'm enjoying learning about all the cool toys that are out there. I've given up being concrete sequential and I'm being random and working on the "Things" that are the most appealing to me personally.

The list of Web 2.0 award winners is utterly fascinating. What's even more fascinating is that I already knew about a fair number of them. Guess I'm not as old as I am feeling (I just found out I'm eligible for the Senior Citizen Meals at IHOP).

I adore Pandora - music has always been one of my passions and I've found some artists whose work I enjoy. For some reason I'm not an ipod junkie, though I have one. I still tend to stick the CD in the CD player and let it rip. I'm more likely to carry a book on the plane than my ipod. I'm also a people watch from way back and it's hard to observe humanity when your ears are plugged up.

I sell on Biblio.com so I think it's safe to say I'm familiar with them! Library Thing, another favorite has lots of library potential. It's way more fun than writing a book report. I haven't explored Technorati, mostly because I know it will unleash my inner monster and I'll spend hours of time there!

I use IkeepBookmarks as my web bookmark site but it's so slowwww so I'm interested in checking out some of the others. I 've taught my lunchbunch to check Ikeepbookmarks for interesting places to go.

My iphone has a direct link to YouTube and oh boy, can I while (or waste) away the hours on it. It's blocked at school - though the kids managed to find their way around the filters. They weren't being malicious, just searching out "funny videos". Most of which I found to be dorky to the extreme but then I'm not a 10 year old boy. I think many of the videos on YouTube are only funny to 10 year old boys. It's Captain Underpants on speed.

Yelp and I going to be as one the next time I go out of town. I looked at the Houston reviews of thrift stores and they are spot on. Good reviews, recent information (Thrift Stores come and go so quickly here) and maps! Oh and a school use - fits in with that old chestnut "The State Report".

I am not a game player - be it board, card or on line but the Lunch Bunch will enjoy Arcaplay - assuming of course they aren't blocked. Bet they are! We'll find out come Monday.

WetPaint already has fans at Housman - we use it to order our lunch and I know some of the teachers plan to use it academically. Just a few though - it is so hard to wean teachers away from pencil and paper projects. I can understand why, since the 4th grade TAKS writing test is all pencil and paper. TAKS keeps us from doing so many interesting things but that's another rant for another post.

Craigslist is a Web 2.0 tool too! Who knew? Love me that Craigslist - couldn't find my inventory without it. I check it every week for garage sales. I'm surprised that Freecycle , the free version of Craigslist didn't make the cut. I use it to get rid fo my culls. Beats hauling them to the Goodwill.

Google Maps - it's on my iphone too. Great tool for the directionally challenged. Why isn't GoogleEarth on the list? My Gifted/Talented kids and I are playing with GoogleEarth - it is endlessly entertaining - and educational.

The one that escapes me is Twitter. I really don't want to know the whereabouts of everybody I know and I don't think they want to virtually follow me around as I do a round of errands. I can see how it could be used in schools for "Virtual Field Trips". That's worth exploring.

I've bookmarked the SEOmoz list and I think I'll be spending lots of time playing with it. Time I ought to be spending doing something else. Like cleaning house.

Library Thing in the Classroom or the Library

I can come up with all sorts of way to use Library Thing in the classroom or the library. It could become a wonderful source of student book reviews and recommendations. I've learned from teaching my blogging class that kids are much more eager to put fingers to keyboard than pencil to paper.

It's also a new twist on that old chestnut "The Book Report". It's a much more natural activity to follow up a class read with than making a diorama or a poster about the book. I've read thousands of books in my lifetime and never once have I ever had the desire to mark the end of a great book by creating a diorama.

Right now my district doesn't offer e-mail addresses to our students and that's the one obstacle I've been coming up against while teaching blogging. Everything Web 2.0 requires an e-mail address and that's yet another thing our kids don't have. I know they are standard in upper and middle class schools where children acquire their own web page at birth but not at Title I schools. We created the blogs by attaching them to an e-mail address I created on my own personal account. That worked till we started making Avatars. Avatars, we discovered required separate e-mail addresses. I now own about 20 different yahoo e-mail addresses! Where there is a will there is a way.

The district has come a long way toward opening up the web to the students, perhaps personal e-mail addresses are not far behind. One can only hope.

Library 2 Play - Thing #11 Library Thing

I've been a member of Library Thing since 2006. Haven't really followed through - so little time and so many things (hey, that could be a new T-shirt slogan!). I have an account & I've listed a few books. I just added their new widget to my blog - I love widgets - they would easily become another addiction. Another addiction is something I don't need. At least not now.

Many of the members of The Betsy-Tacy listserv are members of Library Thing or GoodReads which is similar or both. Right now I'm so busy selling books that I don't have nearly the time I once had to read books. There is a distinct similarity to being an unread bookseller and barefoot cobbler. I can easily see how both could become a happy obsession. MySpace for the literate and for those who can write a complete sentence. As an aside, have you noticed how many spelling & grammar erors there are on the typical Myspace page? Myspace is not a good advertisement for the success of American Education.

I'm also on Paperback Book Swap, which is a fun way to find homes for unwanted books and replace them with wanted ones. Learned about that one via OnLine Booksellers, one of the many Yahoo Groups I belong to (Groups and Listservs are a long standing addiction). It's similar to Library Thing, though it's more of a swap site than a personal library catalog site.

They both appeal to librarians - one allows us to catalog our own books (would that it was that easy to catalog at work) the other allows us to put books into the hands of readers.

Once again, so many groups, so little time!

Librarian Video Game

Finally we have our own on- line video game!

http://www.library.cmu.edu/Libraries/etc/

I need more practice - I'm better at Dewey than LC.
And if you know what the above sentence means than you are definitely a librarian too!

The Effects of a Lunar Eclipse

Today was not normal.

Thunder and lighting accompanied the dismissal bell. Along with the pollen, the rain washed all the common sense away too. A couple of teachers unfurled their umbrellas and led their children around the busses to load them. The result: 1 dry teacher and 15 wet children. Others dumped their kids in the hall and ran. The result: 300 confused kids with inadequate supervision.

I went to Kroger to get gas. The clerk informed me that the system is down and they can’t accept cash. I knew a cashless society was coming, just didn’t expect it to arrive quite so soon. The result: a quick trip to another gas station. In the rain.

Fourth Grade went on a field trip, which meant in an early lunch for them and tweak in the schedule for everyone else. Teachers assumed that dropping their kids off 10 min. early didn’t mean they needed to pick them up 10 minutes early too. The result: 40 minute lunches and chaos in the cafeteria.

I’m teaching myself how to use the Activ Board. Sometimes it does what I want it to and sometimes it doesn’t. The result : Frustration on my part.

Got home and and saw all the chat about the Lunar Eclipse on one of my list servs.
Suddenly the reasons for today's muddles all became clear.

TMI

Third grade is learning about biographies. I'm reading BigMama's by Donald Crews, an autobiographical tale of visits to the author's grandparents in the 1940s. Big Mama lives on a small farm, in a house without electricity and running water and keeps chickens. I start a discussion drawing a parallel between the authors experience and the children's trips to Mexico to visit family. Many of the students spend the summer with grandparents in remote Mexican villages. They are quite familiar with outhouses, kerosene lamps and chickens.

I often hear chickens when I pull up for work in the morning so I know many of the students are also very familiar with American chickens. E, who has long ash blond hair and pale skin with freckles , raises her hand.

“We have chickens in our back yard”

“Do you gather their eggs?” I ask, bucolic visions flitting through my brain.

“No” she says, “We have roosters. My grandfather takes them to Louisiana”.

I rearrange my thinking and contemplate roast chicken instead.

“Why does he take them to Louisiana?”

“So they can fight”

Hummm...........I think it’s time to check out books.

Not Me & I Didn't Do It

There is a new addition to the Library Lunch Bunch. It's our old friend "Not Me".

"Who dumped the tray in the trash? " (they are supposed to be stacked)
"Not me"

"Who spilled their milk on the table and didn't clean it up? "
"Not me."

"Who didn't drink their milk?"
"Not me."

"Not Me" has a cousin by the name of "I Didn't Do It"

How are the CDs getting switched?"
"I didn't do it"

"Isn't that your napkin on the floor?"
"I didn't do it."

"Were you running? "
"I didn't do it."

"Who left their lunch kit on the table?"
"I didn't do it?"

I'm getting very anonyed at "Not Me" and "I Didn't Do It". Friday I sent 10 "Not Mes" back to the cafeteria and told them they weren't welcome to come back till "Not Me" had a name and face.

Since it's rather doubtful that "Not Me" can pass the TAKS test nobody will mind if he withdraws from school. Had, he however been a candiate for Academic Recognition we'd be stuck with him till the end of time - or the TAKS test, whichever comes first.

Library2Play - Thing #8 - RSS Feeds

RSS Feeds & Readers - How have I missed out on these? Sure I've seen the little orange buttons scattered here and there on assorted blogs but I never paid much attention to them. I should have. They are a Virgo's Dream.

Thing #8 explained it all. For most of the weekend I've been busy adding all the blogs on my sidebar to my Goggle Reader. It's teidous work. I open up Blogrolling , click on the link to make sure it's still good, copy n' paste it into Goggle Reader. Repeat. And repeat. I have a crick in my neck.

Along the way I'm cleaning up my blogroll. Deleting blogs are haven't been updated in a couple of months or blogs whose content or focus has changed. I've some blogs that used to be interesting but just aren't any more - at least to me. Not to say they aren't of interest to someone else.

I do cringe when I hit the "dump it" button. I know how hard it is to keep a blog updated and how hard folks work to keep them interesting. It doesn't seem right to "dump" someone's blood, sweat and tears. But, there are only so many hours in the day and there isn't any point in cluttering up my blogroll with blogs I don't read.

It's just like culling my bookshelves or weeding the library. It gets rid of the dead wood and makes way for new blogs (or books). .

Library2Play - Thing 17

I'm not sure why I'm doing Thing #17, in the Library2Play series except that it's under Thing #16. I really ought to go and do Thing #8 which is next on the list. I guess it's because Thing 17 is also about Wikis and they have been much on my mind lately. I've started the Salad Guy Wiki at school (sure wish he'd updated it today - I wanted to order lunch!) and My Beloved is now using a Wiki to plan her next group golf trip. My orderly Virgo mind wants to totally finish the section on Wikis before back tracking to another thing.

So, on to Thing 17, The Sandbox. Not sure how it differs from a Wiki, except you don't need to register to play - all you need is the secret handshake - make that the password.

I've already added many comments as to what I want in the new libraries the district is planning to build - along with all the new schools the district is also planning to construct. I hope they listen to The Librarian Philospher. The last time the district went on an expansion binge they used with the cookie cutter plan. They built 4 identical schools, all of which have the same identical design flaws, many of which can be found in the 4 identical libraries. Libraries need doors and walls. Glass walls are fine, in fact better than brick walls, but some kind of walls. And a door. That closes. However, I digress.

I really ought to start a Library Wiki since I'm supposed to have a library web page and don't. Heck, my school doesn't even have a current web page. There isn't anyone to do it. I suspect that most of the schools that have updated web pages have them because some staff member undertakes it as a labor of love. In education Labors of Love are done at home, on ones own time.

I suspect we'd do more to keep our page current if our students & their parents had computers. Actually, many of them have a computer, it's the internet they don't have. That requires a landline and our population lives in cell phone (the pre-paid, no deposit required) world.

However, should a teacher want to creat a class "Home Page" a Wiki would be an excellent place to begin.

Houston We Have....

Blogs!

Finally!

Permission slips were turned in and the Internet cooperated. I had fun, the kids had fun and blogs were created. Some are better than others, some need some editing but we'll get the kinks worked out in the weeks to come.

Foiled Again!

The Blogging Club meet today for the second time. We managed to open up Blogger.com but then the Internet failed us. We ate brownies and opened up Word and brainstormed the names of some potential blogs.

The one problem with a blogging class is that when the internet goes down it is very difficult to blog!

Library2Play - Thing #16 Wikis

I'm being most Un-Virgo. Virgos always do things in order but I'm jumping from Thing 7 to Thing 16. It's all about Wikis and I created my first Wiki last week.

Lunch in an elementary school library is always a grim affair for the adults. Unlike the high schools there are few choices - you can have the tray lunch, a salad or a baked potato or packing your own. The contents of the tray lunch are often more influenced by farm subsidies and government surplus than Gourmet Magazine. Toss in the fact that most teachers have 25 minutes to eat on a good day and you have a sad situation indeed.

Our new Assistant Principal knew of a budding entrepreneur , The Salad Guy who delivered tasty and healthy salads to the local schools. She put together a few orders but really didn't have time to add this to her daily duties. E-mailing The Salad Guy wasn't satisfactory since the district firewalls has a very bad habit of eating e-mails. So I played around with Wetpaint and set up a Wiki so everyone could order their own lunch.

So far so good - it seems that teachers, just like children will work for food!

I'm now dropping hints that Wikis are a great way for the kids to write and research. They could even post their notes to the Wiki, thus ending the perenial problem of losing their note cards or leaving their project at home. They could also create a Wiki as their finished product. Anything would be an improvement over the tri-folds on which are slapped some pages printed of a web site. Be interesting to see if anyone expands from lunch to research!

First Forays Into Blogging

I’ve wanted to teach a blogging class for our After School Program for quite some time. I’m convinced that blogging helps kids be better writers - I now it’s improved mine.

First hurdle: The district blocked all blogs. Thanks to the efforts of The Librarian Philosopher, Blogger (and some other Web 2.0 resources) are now open.

Second hurdle: Educating the ASP teachers about what a Blog is (and isn’t)

Third hurdle: Getting on the schedule (ASP isn’t always organized)

Two years later I finally got the go-head. The wheels of education turn very, very slowly sometimes.

The first classes meet last week. Of course we couldn’t blog. First there was paperwork to fill out and permission slips to hand out. The district treats anything having to do with the internet very, very seriously.

I explained what a blog was – most of the kids weren’t to sure & showed them some sample blogs. One of the 4th graders wasn’t to sure he wanted to blog – he wanted to go to “technology” which I gather is a computer free for all. I think, that by the end of the hour I’d convinced him to give it a try. Fourth graders take the Writing TAKS test & need all the writing practice they can get.

Next week I’m going to use the Blogging Tips posted on Library2Play and everyone will set up their first blog. That is if the internet is working and the creeks don’t rise.

A couple of the kids turned their permission slips in the very next morning which is a very good sign indeed!

Note to Self...

Remember to put the filter basket in the coffee pot before grinding the beans......

Oh well..... the kitchen floor needed mopping anyway and the counters were overdue for a whipe down....

Thing #7 Google

How did we manage pre- Google? It's my search engine of choice and if it's not on Google well then it doesn't exist! I use it at work, for my book business and to satisfy my personal curiosity. Sooner or later they will organize the world and by doing that rule said world. They can't possibly do a worst job than the current world rulers are doing.


The requirements for Thing #7 are to further explore Google. I drive a couple of my gifted and talented kids home twice a week and they are fascinated by my GPS so I think they would adore Google Earth. I googled ways to use it in the classroom and found some ideas but I need to adapt them for first and second graders. I'm still noodling on that one. Most of what's out there assumes the student knows how to read. Not so when working with a bi-lingual 1st graders.
Even if they are Gifted and Talented.

I discovered Google has a new toolbar - currently residing proudly atop the computer currently in my lap. Langniappe!

I've played around with the Yahoo Calendar in the past, which is similar to the Google Calendar. It doesn't fit my lifestyle. My Beloved & I communicate via Outlook meeting requests. I'm not sure what that says about our relationship. Either Caldendar site would be very useful for a classroom teacher who didn't have a class webpage or blog. Great way to communicate with parents and keep them abreast of homework assignments.

I have a an iGoogle page which I never use - well I did use it but found myself clicking directly to E-bay so made E-bay my home page instead. Actually, I live and die by the links on the top of my toolbar. That and the latest version of Internet Explorer; which allows me to keep multiple pages separated by tabs. Virgos love file folders with tab since they are tools we can use to ORGANIZE things. Virgos live to organize (must be why I'm a librarian).

Google owns Blogger and I've had a blog since 2004 so I've played around with Picasa. Pictures make any blog more interesting. Same goes for books. There's Flickr, there is Picasa, there is Snapfish - just pick one and make it yours. 'nuff said.


However, I didn't know about Google Notebook. That is one very handy little tool. I write an occasional article for Bookthink. Normally I open up Word & cut n' paste my findings but Google Notebook is much handier. I'll give it a whirl as I explore for ways to use Google Earth with my curious 6 year olds.

Library2Play Thing 6

Tomorrow it's back to work so I tackled Thing #6 - it might be some time before I get around to Things #7 - #23. The first week with kids after the break is always a shock.

I digress so back to the topic at hand. I'm a wordsmith and not a graphics artist. I'm not one to spend hours in Photoshop getting the picture to be "just right". I'm much more likely to compose a piece of prose and then find a picture on Google Images and leave it at that. My iPhone still has the original wallpaper and it's doubtful I'll ever change it nor do I change the wallpaper on my personal computer. I don't decorate my house and I don't decorate my computers!

Thing #6 didn't ring my chimes though I can see where kids, who primarily visual will adore making Trading cards and posting pictures on Mappr. An innovative Language Arts teacher could have her students make a Trading Card for the characters in a novel. An equally innovative Social Studies teacher could use Mappr for an interesting twist on the standard "trace the route of Lewis & Clark" assignment or even on that old chestnut - the state report.

Creating a Trading card was easy and I know I'm going to use it with PGP kids. Nice twist on the "about me" assignments.

Library2Play - Thing 5

Flickr is the topic of Thing #5. I'd heard about it, but hadn't used it - mostly due to inertia on my own part. I've always used Snapfish my own picture host. Sometimes I am indeed an old dog. Tonight, with the cold weather making my knees ache I'm feeling like very old dog indeed.

I'm the defacto photographer at school - not because I'm talented but because I always have a digital camera on my belt. A working digital camera with fresh batteries. I'd been posting pictures on Snapfish but Flickr appears to be a better tool. It would have greatly simplified last December's Science Fair Project.

I created a group - of course I'm the administrator - I do so love being in charge- and I'll start posting school pictures to it. Since many of them are of the students it's an "by invitation" only group. Seems a prudent thing to do.

One of my Christmas presents is a Digital Picture Frame and I'm going to load it up and take it to school. The kids adore looking at pictures of themselves. It will be a fun addition to the 5 Lava Lamps that now adorn the library.

Library2Play - Thing 3 & Thing 4

The assignment for Things 3 & 4 is to set up one's own Blog and register it. I just decided to use the one I already had. I've been very lax about posting to it so the last thing I need is two neglected blogs. One is plenty.

I created an Avatar - she's over on the left. That was rather fun! Now I"m going to have to keep her updated. Setting her into my sidebar was rather interesting since I don't use one of the standard blogger templates. I had mine "skinned" a couple of years ago- I never do like being like everybody else. Julie, whom I meet in the blogsphere did as one of her first commissions.

I think I'm going to teach blogging to some of our 4th and 5th graders and I'm going to use the blogging PowerPoint as my introduction. No reason to remake a new wheel! I think they will love creating their own Avatars. Chances are they will teach me a thing or two along the way.

Library2Play - Thing 1 & Thing 2

Our Director of Library Services and his 2 cohorts in crime are always coming up with ways to keep their minions on their toes and constantly learning and growing. They have designed a Cyber Class in Web 2.0 and are "encouraging " all of us to join them on the journey of discovery (or frustration, depending on one's opinion of technology). It's entitled Libray2Play and consists of some 23 tasks - or things. Calling them "Things" brings to mind Thing 1 & Thing 2.

Come to think of it, Thing 1 and Thing 2 are rather apt metaphors for computers and technology. Both can get into the most interesting sorts of mischief.


Seems rather apt for the subject of my first post of 2008 to be on learning something new and different.

The Home of the JazzMan

I'm not sure why anyone would hold an estate sale on Sunday, Dec. 23 - but MargieBeelge sales had one on the calendar. Perhaps they had no choice but it made for low attendance which suited us just fine. . It was an odd sale to begin with since the family held several garage sales before calling them in. From what they said the most amazing treasures went out of the house for pennies on the dollar (great weeping and wailing on everyone’s part).

The house was your standard 3 bedroom ranch, built in the early 1960s, in what was once a nice part of town but is now a lock your car doors part of town. . It was pretty apparent that it was a one owner house, that the wife had died years before the husband and that neither had ever redecorated or thrown anything out. Both of them had some serious pack rat issues and ADORED mail order. As in every book every put out by Oxmoor (Southern Living) press, every video put out by National Geographic, Columbia Music club and the Software of the Month club (bet you didn’t know there was such a thing – I didn’t either).

We I arrived at 10 and found one room was nothing but wall to wall CDs. The man was a major jazz aficionado. So much that he lost track of what he had – lots of duplicates and many were still sealed. We each took a corner and started scanning. Lots of not founds, Columbia music club and junk but some amazing finds too. At 1:30 we finally finished with the room – and neither of us had scanned behind the other one. My scanner showed I’d scanned 700+ cds and my friend did more (she’s more agile than I).

We were sitting on the floor, standing, on our knees and bending into assorted pretzel positions - physically it was a very uncomfortable sale.. We both have Scoutpal but the volume was so great that we didn’t have the time to hand key in any of not founds. Neither of us know anything about Jazz so we were scan monsters to the extreme. Oddly we were the only dealers present – the other folks were just people who like estate sales or like jazz. We had lots of comments on our scanners to which we gave our standard answer “It helps us keep track of what we don’t need”.

We were starving so we checked out – I have never dropped $500 on inventory and had only 2 boxes to show for it! Got some lunch and headed back for round two.

Round two consisted of the garage which was knee high in magazines and trash bags. Trash bags full of ripe garbage. My nose couldn’t take it but Lou got 2 boxes of Downbeat Magazine. That left us the computer room which had a waist high pile of software – much of it unopened. I think the man might be have been a beta tester for Borland. The software stopped arriving around 2003 – just prior to Windows XP. We couldn’t get any hits on it so we left it behind and tackled the videos instead. Great collection –lots of MGM musicals but they’ve been re-released on DVD so they were worthless. We both found enough $20 dollar or so videos with good ranks so it wasn’t time spent in vain

At 3:30 we checked out and painfully crawled into the car and headed home. I'd spent $550 and my friend dropped $900. The CDs were $3 each so we had one loaded car. I'm to tried to do the math but that's a lot of CDs - and we barely made a dent in the collection.

It's been a rather amazing 13 months. Friends of the Library Sales doors are closing but windows are opening elsewhere. November, 2006 was the month of the BookMan, September, 2007 Spiritual Man and December, 2007 ushered in JazzMan.

New Toy!

I will never dread another faculty meeting again!

Diversity R Us

Celebrated the beginning of Winter Break and early dismissal by going out to lunch (it doesn't take much to make a teacher happy).

We went to our favorite Chinese Buffet and as always the bill came with fortune cookies.

Only they weren't your Grandma's fortune cookies. These were bi-lingual fortune cookies.
English / Chinese you ask?
Nope, English / Spanish.

Only in Houston would you encounter fortune cookies English / Spanish in a Chinese restaurant.

Diversity, gotta love it!

And Our Priorities Are ..............

A librarian at a nearby school questioned some of the teachers as to why their students were reading so few books and so rarely darkening the door of the library.
.
The response of one 5th grade teacher: " I don't have time to come to the library, I'm to busy getting my kids ready for the TAKS reading test. The kids don't have time to read any books - we have so many TAKS practice reading passages we need to finish."

Humm.....schools are supposed to be educating tomorrows workers and citizens. I don't think most employers consider bubbling in TAKS answers a career prerequisite.

The Times..They Are A'Changing...

Rather interesting library meeting today.

In my district, as in many other school district the technology folks pretty much set the policies regarding computer equipment. As far as they are concerned their first task is to "protect the equipment". They remind me of the librarians of yore who didn't want any children in the library. They might disrupt the order of the books on the shelves or God Forbid, lose a book. Better for the books to stay safe on the shelves than to be checked out and used.

Our Tech folks are just as possessive of "their" computers. They forget that our primary business is educating children and that the computers are supposed to be a means to that end. They aren't as bad as some other tech departments I've read about. LM_NET abounds with horror stories of techies disabling the usb slots so that nobody can use a jump drive, forbidding the opening of any attachments and closing off the floppy disk drives.

Given their druthers I am quite certain our techie types would have loved to institute similar polices. I attended one of their trainings last spring which consisted of them telling nothing but "Us" vs "Them" stories (I was in the "them" camp).

Directors of our computer department have come and gone with in a dizzying speed and the revolving door just a landed another one in the head honcho chair. This one has a new attitude.

All teachers are getting a laptop. A laptop they can take home. A laptop they can actually install printer drivers and hook up to their home Internet provider. A laptop they can carry from workshop to workshop and meeting to meeting. A laptop that won't lock them out of the desktop and the control panel.

This is a complete 360. Granted corporate America has been operating this way for years but the wheels of educational change move with a global slowness. I do hope this current director stays around long enough to celebrate his one year anniversary.

To Many Catalogs or Drowning in Junk Mail

We have an extra large mailbox and at this time of year it's full to bursting with catalogs, catalogs and more catalogs. Both My Beloved & I loathe Malls and do the bulk of our shopping by mail or internet. Company A sells one of our names to Company B who sells it C and so on till Company Z sells it back to Company A. Since we have seperate credit cards we often get duplicate catalogs.

Through one of my many and assorted list servs I discovered Catalog Choice. It's the mail box version of the "Do Not Call " List. Grab a pile of unwanted catalogs, log on, sign up (it's free), look up the companies and start deleting.

Check out this great site and save some trees and your mail persons back !

Thursday Thirteen - 13 Reasons to be Thankful

Yes, I know it's a cliche but it's Thanksgiving, which is good day for cliches, thankful thoughts, good food and football

My Beloved - 10 years and counting and she continues to make my heart sing

My girls - all grown up, college graduates and on their own in careers they enjoy

The Internet - it gives me friends, a business and shopping from my couch

My job - while I don't like getting up in the morning, I very much enjoy it when I get there.

My Parents - who decided on their own to sell their house and downsize.

Our House - It's been 7 years and I love it as much as I did when we moved in

My Bookselling Friends - both my actual and my cyber ones

Thrift Stores - whose wares allow me to resell at a 200% mark up

The USPS - I couldn't run my business without them.

Gizmos and Gadgets -Digital cameras, Media Scouter, Cell Phones, Tivo and more

Masterpiece Theater - A bit of enlightenment in a cultural wasteland

NetFlix - so I can enjoy the above while packing books

Health Insurance - I may gripe about it but at least I have it.

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Flat Stanley Goes to School

Going to school is not nearly as restful as being on Dufuskie Island. I had to get up at 5am.

I always thought libraries were quiet.

Not this one.
It’s non stop activity. Kids came in and out all day. The kids at this schoool really love to read.

There are many computers and more books that I have ever seen.

The students even eat lunch there.

I think I need to go on another vacation!

Flat Stanley Heads Home to Houston

Here I am in the Savannah Airport with the pilots who are supposed to fly our plane home. It is over 2 hours late because of the thunderstorms in Houston. I find it amazing that the weather in one part of the country can affect someone who is over 1000 miles away.

Two hours later we were finally on our way. It will be good to be home again!

Flat Stanley Plays Golf

I played golf today. Here I am getting my first birdie.
I learned that math is very important because you need to be able to add up your score. The golfer with the lowest score wins the game. The goal is to have a score lower than 72 which is called par. So you also need to be able to subtract. Professional golfers usually shoot below par but amateur golfers are happy if they break 80.

Flat Stanley Meets Rosie Jones

I’ve meet several famous golfers on this trip. Here I am at breakfast with Rosie Jones. She’s also a famous LPGA golfer. She’s retired now and besides doing commentary on the Golf Channel she also arranges golfing trips. She’s very funny and most delightful.

Flat Stanley Walks on the Beach

Daukuskie Island faces the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Bay of Savannah on the other. The beach is totally deserted – we walked for over an hour and saw no one. You can take a look at it on Google Earth if your teacher has it installed on her computer.

I examined a Horseshoe Crab – did you know that they date back to the time of the Dinosaurs? Some people call them Living Fossils.

Daukuskie Island has a long history. At one time Indians who ate the crabs just like this one lived there. Now it is a summer home for wealthy people who build great big houses. There is no bridge to the island. The only way to get on and off is by boat. It’s as close as getting away from everything as I’ve ever seen.

Flat Stanely Rides in a Golf Cart

Most everyone at the Daukuskie Island resort drives around in Golf Carts.

They have many uses besides golf courses. They are electric and they are good for our earth since they don’t need gasoline. You just plug it in at night and let the battery recharge. They are also very quiet.

In Sun City, Arizona, many people have a golf cart instead of a second car. Many people there have custom golf carts.

Flat Stanly Meets Kathy Whitworth

Flat Stanly again:

I’ve meet some interesting people on this trip. Here I am with
Kathy Whitworth. She is a famous golfer who won 88 Professional Golf Tournaments. That’s more than anyone.

Tiger Woods has 54wins. How many more does Tiger have to win before he breaks her record?

Annika Sorenstam’s won 69 tournaments. How many more does she have to win to break the record? Who has won more – Tiger Woods or Anika Sorensten?

Ms. Whitworth said she’d never before posed with a book character. I told about my travels and she said that I travel as much as she does. She is going to Australia next week.

The Wives

My Beloved is nourishing her inner Golf Goddess at The Rosie Jones Golf Getaway at Daufaskie Island, South Carolina. It’s also our 10 anniversary and she suggested I do the unthinkable and ask for 3 personal days and join her. There is a partners package, so way she can indulge without one iota of guilt.
So, along I came, books and computer in tow. The women – there are 16 of them golf all day and I join them for breakfast and dinner. In between, I’m at my own devices, which suits an introvert like me just fine.

Daufaskie is very, very remote so I’m not doing my usual thrift store marathon. No point, there aren’t any stores on this island, not to mention few roads or cars. Transportation is mainly by foot or golf cart.

I’ve been spending time on the porch overlooking the ocean, reading and watching the world. Dukasee caters to corporate retreats and meetings. Given that is no place to go, it’s actually a very good choice since nobody can skip out of the meeting to go to the ball game or the mall. There are several golf courses & bars so the A type executive is content.

Besides our group, there is a also a large party of slightly graying at the temple men in golf shirts and Ralph Lauren shorts enjoying a tax deductible combination of golf and business. Some have brought their wives who of course may join their husbands on the fairways. They stay behind, visit the spa and sit on the veranda and chat.


The wives fall into two categories. Some originals, acquired during the man’s senior year in college. 50ish or 60ish, graying hair, a figure that’s been changed by childbearing and gravity. Comfortable clothes that cover the buldges and flat shoes. They look well taken care of off and are well put together. They look like women who are at peace with themselves and their life and realize the size 6 cheerleader they were 30 years ago is gone forever. They keep busy with their children, their grandchildren and volunteer activities.


Then there are the trophy wives. Blond, painfully thin, carefully manicured nails, high heeled sandals. Large diamond engagement ring, expensive gold necklaces adorning a taut carefully maintained size 4 figure clad in perfectly coordinated resort ware. A large purse with lots of chrome and buckles hangs over their left shoulder. Large, suitcase size purses appear to be in this year.

The two groups are thrown together for a couple of days, expected to spend most of the daylight hours in each other’s company. I wonder how the first group feels, looking at the second. Do they keep in the touch with the women the trophies have replaced? Do they look at the trophy wives and wonder if any of them have a friend waiting in the wings to take their place at the table?

And ,does it ever occur to the Trophy Wives that 10 or 15 years hence they may find themselves in the first group?

Flat Stanley here:

I'm not quite sure what happened but after arriving in Texas I found myself stuffed into a bag . The next time I saw daylight I was on a ferry boat and surrounded by water.

I over heard some saying I was on the Savannah River, in Savannah Georgia and that we were heading toward Daufuskie Island, South Carolina.

Wait a minute! This isn't making any sense. I 'm supposed to be learning about Cowboys and the Alamo and instead I'm seeing the Atlantic Ocean.








What's going on?

Flat Stanley Adventures #1

Mrs. ABC Mom asked if I'd be willing to host Flat Stanley for week or two. For those of you who don't hang out in Elementary classrooms Flat Stanley is a book character who accidentally found himself paper thin and living in a envelope. Teachers send him round the globe and he helps make geography come alive.

He show up in my post office box the day before we left for Daufuskie Island & I stuffed him into my computer bag and took him along for the ride. He's really supposed to be hanging out in my library back in Texas but he's taken a slight detour.

Flat Stanley hopes to blog about his trip and adventures. Of course he realizes that his audience is in the second grade so he's not going to tell the ENTIRE story of his trip. His hostess will however, fill in all the details in her blog posts!

And I Helped...

About 10 years back we got a new student - 8 year boy, just arrived from Vietnam. The family was living with their cousins in a home down the street from school. Funny looking kid, kind of gawky, mismatched clothing and an eagerness to learn such as I've rarely seen. He took to the library, to the books and to Accelerated Reader like a duck to water. He started out with Go Dog Go. By time he graduated from the 5th grade he was devouring Harry Potter. He loved computers too -the two of us learned PowerPoint together. He was one of those kids you always remember and go out of your way to give extra help and encouragement. .

Some of the cousins were younger so I'd see him from time to time at school events and we kept in touch. Two years ago he showed as a volunteer via his High School service group.

He's a senior now, graduating in May. Applying to Yale, Harvard, Sanford and Rice. I know his parents, his family, his natural ability and his work ethic are mostly responsible for the fine young man he's become. But I like to think I helped a little bit too.

Reasons for the Long Silence

Last Thursday
Get to work at 7, teach till 2:30, teach after school Primary Gifted & Talented class till 3:45. Take 3 of the Primary Gifted and Talented to kids to daycare (pacifying them with my GPS). Go to post office. Go to thrift store next to post office (find a $40 & $30 book, a Halloween flag and 2 books to donate to my school library). Pick up Spring Rolls at the Vietnamese place for dinner, 5:30, open library for Family Library Night. 8pm. Remove 77 people from library by turning off the computers. Go home. Answer e-mails, list the 2 books, pack books. Go to bed.

Last Friday
Get to work at 6:45 (have to put library back together again after Family Library Night), work till 2:30 (check out 400 books and teach 6 classes + lunch in library for 30+ kids). Rush home, meet a friend who drove in from MacGregor. We , drive to Galveston for the annual Friends of the Library Sale.. Arrive at sale at 4:30. Doors open at 5. Shop the sale till they kick us at 7:30 (awesome sale – they weeded the art books-spend $110, and have a $400 book in the lot). Have dinner, drive back to Houston, We kill half of a big bottle of wine, go to bed.

Last Saturday
Get up at 6:30, arrive at the Heights Friends of the Library sale by by 7:30. Buy books (spend $120) , Go to Zen center sale, buy more books (spend $30) . Go to brunch with 2 other book sellers and talk shop for 2 hours.. Go to Half Price Books. Buy more books (spend $40)- including 10 Betsy Tacy books . Come home Do laundry, clean up kitchen, clean up after cats (one has a new habit of pucking). Drink rest of the wine while listing books (that might not have been the brightest of moves) .

6:30pm The Universe calls (via Lou): Spiritual Man has more books .
Guess what I’m did last Sunday at 2pm?

It’s beginning to look like the Soccer’s Apprentice has switched from buckets of water to boxes of books

I'm a History Geek

Thanks Library Girl!

Those Dead White Guys....

Really did know what they were doing .

Last week was “Constitution Week”. Believe it or not,, all public school students must be exposed to the Preamble of the Constitution on or about September 17th. It’s the law. While I love history I don’t like teaching The Constitution in September. It’s to early in the year for 5th grade, who are still discovering America and the little ones are still struggling with The Pledge of Allegiance.

However, Congress decided they solved all of our problems and having nothing better to do mandated Constitution Day a couple of years ago. To ensure it’s done my principal delegates it to me since I see all the classes.


This year I tried something new – I turned my Mr. Magoo puppet into James Madison and had him “read” a new book by Picture Window called “The U.S. Constitution. Actually, he paraphrased it, since parts of it were totally over everyone’s head.

It turned out rather well – the kids loved the puppet – even the 5th graders who think they are to sophisticated for puppets. James of course did quite a bit of improvisation depending on the grade level he was addressing. James’s voice got hoarser and hoarser as the day went on and James’s alter ego went home exhausted.

James read and explained the Preamble some 40+ times. It is one outrageous statement. Those Founding Fathers weren’t staid, conservative, white men. They were wild eyed radicals intent on creating a form of government like no other. They did it too. And did it well.

I do wonder, if in this post 9/11 World if our current Congress would ever manage to pass it, shoudl it ever have to come up for a vote again?

I do know that if they did our current President would veto it in a heartbeat.